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Barbara Clough

Renaming holidays

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I like this time of year as it leads into Thanksgiving week, which really needs to be renamed, but as Americans, we'd never be able to agree on another name. 

There was a cool show called Northern Exposure set in a fictional small town in Alaska. If I'm remembering this episode correctly, the town had a large indigenous population, so to start off the 'Thanksgiving holiday' there was a parade at which the indigenous peoples pelted the non-indigenous with rotten tomatoes and other stuff. Then everyone cleans up and eats and watches football. Recently, we've switched Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day because no one "found" North America - it had pretty much been here all along. And people lived here. And besides, Columbus Day was just an excuse for an October holiday.

I like the idea of figuring out to create holidays that actually include people and doesn't build on years of tyranny. What do you think? Any holidays that you think should be renamed to reflect the history and lived experience of the non-dominant class?  

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Jim McCrory, Wednesday, 1 Dec 2021, 11:19)
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